Friday, March 15, 2013

A New Cover and a little bit of disappointment

Happy Friday! TGIF, right? From what I can see, it's sunny here, maybe chilly (I'll know better when I go shopping later). I am happy to report that M.A. Church and I have our cover for our first joint venture, Be My Alien, which is being released by Dreamspinner Press in May/June of this year. Things are moving quickly on that front, so probably May. But before I reveal that, I just have a couple of other things I wish to mention first.

I am visiting with Lexi Ander today, at her blog, and talking about Revelations, so please stop by and say hello!

Secondly, I'm in a bit of a slump right now. It's amazing how much of a writer's life consists of waiting to hear from people, particularly publishers. Waiting is the hardest part, once you've finished polishing your work/heart and sent it out for inspection. But sometimes receiving an answer is harder than not receiving one.

As you may know, I've recently re-acquired the rights to most of the works I had published with Silver (and that is a whole other can of worms that I won't go into). Like many other former Silver authors, I am trying to get them back into circulation with other publishers. I succeeded with A Special Christmas, which is being published by Torquere Press in December, and about which I am very excited. Still others are in the waiting stages. But one in particular, that I subbed to a publisher who shall be nameless, was rejected because the publisher said they had too many resubs and couldn't take it. I thought that was reasonable, considering how much Silver material must be out there, and probably Noble Romance too. But then the same publisher turned down an original book, as well as a book by a friend, and we put it down to they don't want paranormal right now.

Until yet another friend received contracts - and not just any contracts, but for resubs that are also paranormal.

So I was lied to. For what purpose? I have no idea. She could have told me anything else - the truth would have been nice - and I wouldn't have thought anything of it. Disappointed, sure. But now I'm pissed and I'm hurt, and I have to ask myself do I want anything to do with a publisher who would lie in such a way when it wasn't necessary? How cold and callous is this publisher? What else is she capable of?

Needless to say, I'm in a tizzy, and a writer in a tizzy isn't in the best frame of mind in which to write. Self-doubts creep in - those nasty little things that linger just beneath the surface at the best of times and come out when a writer is at her lowest.

I'll get over this and I know it. But it leaves me with a poor taste in my mouth, for I realized that so far, all of the publishers I've worked with have disappointed in some way - some worse than others. I hope this isn't the norm, and I pray that in the future I'll find out differently. But for now, color me jaded

Enough of that. On to the cover reveal. And a little bit about Be My Alien, the first book in the Moonlit Skies series by M.A. and myself.

What’s an alien to do?
Dumped at the Empire State Building by the very male he’s been trying to get a
date with forever, Taz is stranded on a backwater planet called Earth with no
money, no idea where the motel they rented is located, and… he’s starving to
boot! The lovely moonlit skies he had admired no longer hold any appeal for
him.

Where can he go, what
can he do? The answer comes in the form of a human named Reed… and a love that
will travel across the universe.

Blurb:

A man too busy for love…

Reed owns an upscale
men’s boutique with a naughty back room. While making a late delivery to a
client, he runs into Taz.

A man on a disastrous
date…

When Taz agreed to come
to Earth on a date, he didn’t expect to be dumped and left with no way home.
Then he falls into Reed’s arms—literally.

A coffee date soon
becomes a trip back to Reed’s apartment. But when Taz’s stripes begin to show,
Reed discovers Taz comes from a planet far, far away.

Reed never believed aliens existed, but he’s
facing one now. What in the world is he going to do?

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall on top
of you like that. You see, it was like this. I was pushed, and you just
happened to be there and….” The stranger grinned at Reed. “And down we went.”

Reed shifted under the body lying so
contentedly on top of him. Hell’s bells, the guy fit against him perfectly.
From the feel of things, they were both close to the same height. Which also
meant certain things were… aligned. “Oh yeah, I’m okay. Banged my head a
little, but I’m fine.”

The stranger bit his bottom lip, his
teeth worrying the tender skin. Reed debated slamming his head against the
floor a few more times in the hopes of rattling his brain back to normal as the
stranger rolled off him.

“I really am sorry.”

“No harm done.” Reed sat up and looked
at the guy once again. Well, not much harm, anyway. His libido just had to pick
now to perk up, didn’t it? But damn, this guy was sexy. Reed struggled to his
feet and held his hand out to the man still on the floor, looking up at him.
The guy took his hand and let Reed pull him up. “Name’s Reed. Are you okay?”

“Hi, Reed!” The guy hopped to his feet
in a single, lithe movement, as if it was the most….world. “My name is Taz.
Nice to meet you, and yes, I am.”

For a moment there was a flash in the
guy’s eyes that belied his statement. “Good, that’s good. Glad to hear it.
Well, I guess I’d better be going—”

Reed hesitated. There was something
about the guy that pulled at him. When was the last time he’d felt that pull?
Way too long ago. Taz was cute, sure. But there was this look of hurt. Dammit,
Taz just looked so lost. Insane as it was, he wanted to make it all better.

A little bit about the authors:

Author bio:

M.A. Church

M.A. Church lives in the southern United
States and spent many years in the elementary education sector. She is married
to her high school sweetheart and they have two children. Her hobbies are
gardening, walking, attending flea markets, watching professional football,
racing, and spending time with her family on the lake.

But her most beloved hobby is reading.
From an early age, she can remember hunting for books at the library. Later
nonhuman and science fiction genres captured her attention and drew her into
the worlds the authors had created. But always at the back of her mind was the
thought that one day, when the kids were older and she had more time, she would
write a book.

By sheer chance she stumbled across a
gay male romance story on the web and was hooked. A new world opened up and she
fell in love. Thus the journey started. When not writing or researching, she
enjoys reading the latest erotic and mainstream romance novels.

Julie Lynn Hayes was reading at the age of two and writing by the age of
nine and always wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Two marriages, five
children, and more than forty years later, that is still her dream. She blames
her younger daughters for introducing her to yaoi and the world of M/M love, a
world which has captured her imagination and her heart and fueled her writing
in ways she'd never dreamed of before. She especially loves stories of two men
finding true love and happiness in one another's arms and is a great believer
in the happily ever after. She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and
two cats, loves books and movies, and hopes to be a world traveler some day. While
working a temporary day job, she continues to write her books and stories and
reviews, which she posts in various places on the internet. Her family thinks
she is a bit off, but she doesn't mind. Marching to the beat of one's own
drummer is a good thing, after all. Her other
published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, MuseitUp Publishing, and No
Boundaries Press and she has also begun to self-publish at various places on
the Internet.